Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drew an even firmer line against confirming Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying Sunday he wouldn't hold a vote for the respected jurist even during a lame duck session following a hypothetical Hillary Clinton victory in the November presidential election.

"I can't imagine that a Republican majority Congress, in a lame duck session, after the American people have spoken, would want to confirm (him)," the Kentucky Republican said on CNN's "State of the Union."

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McConnell added a blunt "yes," when he was asked on the program if he had "completely" ruled out confirming Garland at any point before the next president takes office.

"We're in the process of picking a president, and that new president ought to make this appointment, which will affect the Supreme Court maybe for the next quarter of a century," he said.

The Kentucky Republican has repeatedly said he would refuse to schedule a vote on Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court until after the next president is sworn in, even as other GOP senators have indicated an openness to holding a vote in a lame-duck session of Congress.

President Obama announces his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland (r.), in the Rose Garden at the White House in D.C. on Wednesday. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

The White House, meanwhile, vowed Sunday to stand behind its nominee until he sits on the Supreme Court.

"We will stand by him from now until he is confirmed and he is sitting on the Supreme Court," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on "Fox News Sunday." "This (is an) unbelievably qualified, extraordinarily decent man who comes to this nomination with more federal court experience than any nominee beforehand."

"I don't know why McConnell has done this to his senators. He's marching these men, women over a cliff. I don't think they're going to go," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That façade is breaking as we speak. We now have about eight or nine senators who say, 'Oh, yeah, I guess we will meet with him.'"

"Let's man up here. We are elected to take votes. We should be voting. And there's going to be a breakthrough here," he said.

McConnell and several other Republicans have remained adamant that he doesn't receive a vote before the inauguration of the next president.

But in recent days, other GOP lawmakers have softened on that stance.

Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio — who both face tough re-election contests this fall — as well as Susan Collins (Maine), James Inhofe (Okla.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) have expressed an openness to meeting with Garland.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has suggested he would be open to meeting with Garland and has said that, if a Democrat were elected President in November, he would want the Senate to consider Garland's nomination during a post-election, lame-duck session.